Today we launch what we hope will be a regular feature, a guest commentary. Today’s entry is by a regular poster on our community forum; Cliff has contributed to our little web community and is a great choice to lead off our guest writers. We’ll try to post at least one guest commentary every week on Wednesday or Thursday. If you have a rant, opinion or something else you want to share with our readers, send it via email to [email protected]. Here are the rules.
Guest commentary by CliffRollTide
I remember early in my life my dad was always listening to sports on the radio. He was very quiet and slept most of the time when he was home due to the fact he worked two full time jobs. Summer was baseball, but fall was Alabama football. I didn’t know much about it then, but I always wanted to be like my dad.
After mom and dad split up when I was ten, I spent much more time with dad, as he lived with my grandmother, where I already spent lots of time. We’d sit by the big stereo and listen to Bama games together. He wasn’t quiet during these times.
My earliest memory of a specific Bama game was the ’72 Iron Bowl. Ah, there were a lot of upset people that day. That’s the day Bear made the “Cow College†comment-prior to losing to Auburn. All the male Bama fans were angry at Bear for allowing the same thing to happen twice. More than a few women were actually crying.
Jump to the ’73 Bama-Notre Dame game. Oh, there was no joy in Mudville that day. It was the first time a Bama game had actually ever hurt me. Again Bear took the heat, but that was how he wanted it-win and it was the players who did it, lose and it was his fault. He always said he didn’t feel like we lost that game, we just ran out of time.
Notre Dame became my most hated rival-they still occupy that place in my heart. We were destined to lose four more games to ND before finally breaking through.
I got a special Alabama jacket and Dad had “Alabama Crimson Tide†put across the back. I wore that jacket for years and received much ridicule for being a Bama fan in Georgia. I stuck to my guns and have always been the most die-hard Bama fan I know.
I remember some big wins, but mostly I remember the big losses. ’75 started with Missouri scoring 20 points on us in the first half. We played championship ball the rest of the year, outscoring the Tigers 7-0 in the second half, and then winning our next 11 games. ’76 was a down year, but the 21-0 drubbing we took from Georgia caused me to take more grief than any other loss ever.
And then came the first lean years between Bear and Stallings. ’92 was a small slice of heaven. Finally, a team to be proud of again. Alas, it wasn’t to be-Stallings left much too soon and we were faced with the drought we’ve been weathering since.
With Saban we are finally able to hold our heads up again and look forward to OUR team once again being a force, a team circled on the schedule. Once more, finally, the road to the SEC championship will go through Tuscaloosa!
Can we all say ROLL TIDE?